Meet Dominic and Birgit, home sharers in Munich

Dominic and Birgit live together with their two kids close to Nymphenburg Park in Munich. For just over two years, they have been sharing a spare room in their family home.

In a few years, they plan to turn their spare room into another bedroom for one of their children. But at the moment, Lukas and Merle enjoy sharing, as the family doesn’t need the extra room, they decided to share it on Airbnb instead. Often, neighbors book Dominic and Birgit’s room for visiting friends and family. In return, they help with check-in when Dominic and Birgit can’t welcome their Airbnb guests personally.

Dominic is a very active and engaged member of the Home Sharing Club in Munich. He regularly meets other home sharers from across the city to connect, share stories and discuss the unfair and unclear home sharing regulations in Munich. Home sharers can only share their home up to six weeks a year before needing to ask for permission from the city. This limit will soon be increased by only two weeks, to eight weeks a year.

“Hosts in Munich should be allowed to share the home they live in as much as they want to”, Dominic says. “One of my neighbors is a flight attendant, she travels more than eight weeks a year and her apartment would otherwise be empty during her travels”.

Dominic wishes politicians would develop a greater understanding of home sharing and make creating fairer home sharing rules part of their agenda. In his eyes, the current regulations do not reflect the way of living and working of people in Munich.